| world”, is an excellent parallel. There he acknowledged that today’s realities are rooted in centuries of coexistence as well as in conflicts and wars. A new beginning will need to acknowledge this history and be built on mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual listening. He talked about what Islamic culture had given to the world – timeless poetry, cherished music, elegant calligraphy etc. He talked about the unbreakable bond with Israel because it is based on cultural and historical ties. He acknowledged America’s wrongs against Iran, especially the role the CIA played in the overthrow of a democratically elected government.
The parallels with Africa are stark. No where else can one better acknowledge humanity’s collective debt in relation to culture, music and calligraphy (the history of Ethiopian calligraphy is as old as any), a long history of multiculturalism and the co-existence of diverse cultures than Africa – the north and the horn inclusive. If anyone will acknowledge what Africa offers to the rest of the world other than mineral resources, it has to be a “son of Africa”. It will be good to hear that Africa doesn’t only represent poverty and conflict. There is much more in the history between Africa and America to make the bonds as “unbreakable” as any.
Obama’s visit to Ghana coincides with the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founding father Kwame Nkrumah. He will be arriving at an airport built by Nkrumah, speaking in a parliament building constructed by Nkrumah and enjoying electricity which is the product of Nkrumah’s investments. All these projects were once touted in the West as “white elephants”, including the expansion of the port and harbours, trunk roads. He will be speaking to an educated elite most of whom would have had their foundations in Nkrumah’s relentless investments in education. When he lauds Ghana’s relative peace, he will be minded to note that this has its roots in the pursuit of equitable development strategies of the 1960s that has spread opportunities to all ethnic groups. That the state means something to Ghanaians – well worth risking to promote democratic governance – is rooted in a culture of essential service provisioning by the state, began in the 1960s.
When Obama reflects on these he may be minded to, not only recognise Nkrumah’s pioneering vision but also apologise for the CIA’s role in overthrowing a democratically elected government of Kwame Nkrumah to satisfy cold war strategic interests. In doing so, he may also be minded to extend this apology to the role the CIA played in the removal from power of Patrice Lumumba and the resulting mess that is today’s Democratic Republic of the Congo, and many such adventures across the continent. Military coups in Africa – the biggest threat to democracy and good governance - were introduced by the CIA and other western intelligence services. To not acknowledge that in a speech focused on good governance is to trivialise Africa’s history of struggle for democracy. A good “son of Africa” couldn’t possibly do that.
In his focus on good governance, President Obama may be minded to note that the experience that Africans have of the military is not of protectors but instruments of destructive interests – whether these are domestic or foreign. Militarisaltion portends interference in democratic processes. The experience of foreign military build-ups portend external intervention to prop up dictators, or mess up the electoral process, for the protection of strategic foreign interests. If Obama is serious about democratic and accountable governance taking root in Africa, he will be minded to dispel the fear (and the rumour) that the United States is actively militarising the Gulf of Guinea through increased activities of US naval forces. He should signal loud and clear that he respects the African Union’s reluctance to extend the US military footprint in Africa, whether by providing landing facilities or hosting an AFRICOM facility. He should dispel the rumour circulating in Ghana, when he speaks to the Ghanaian parliament, to the effect that Ghana’s former president John Kufuor had done a deal allowing US forces to set up bases on Ghanaian soil.
Democracy and good governance are hard to sustain peacefully when the mass of the population do not have education and jobs – the latter being a source of taxation to sustain the institutions of democracy. When public institutions are funded either by foreign aid or indirectly by foreign companies, rather than the tax system generated from local productive enterprise, government accountability tends to de facto be externally focused. Not all types of jobs are conducive to democracy. Jobs that are concentrated in rural primary production tend not to produce the critical mass of activism and awareness as well as the network of institutions necessary to hold governments to account, compared with jobs in manufacturing and value-added services. Value-added production of goods and services as well as taxation, are in my view, the most potent instruments for democratisation. This is the sense in which one cannot separate the economy from the democratic process.
Obama’s speech could helpfully draw these parallels. More than that, he can do something about it in two main ways: extend his crusade against tax dodging to Africa and review current US economic relations with Africa. The issue of taxation applies to the capacity to collect tax, the sharing of natural resource rents between Africans and foreign mining companies – many of which are American or trade on US stock markets – and tax dodging through the use of tax havens. It will be wonderful if Obama were to call upon the Newmonts of this world and other multinational companies to publish their accounts on a country by country basis, including the profits they make and how the profit are shared or re-invested. It will be sufficient even to note the harmful nature of tax dodging by multinational companies. Similarly, it will be helpful if Obama were to state that in accordance with the UN Convention on Corruption, the United States will prosecute American or African companies or individuals operating in American markets who are suspected of bribery, tax evasion or aggressive tax avoidance. This will send a wonderful deterrence signal. Addressing the tax problem can put into the African economy annually no less than $50bn.
An associated issue of resource outflow is the renewed debt problem. The limited debt relief delivered by the multilateral debt relief initiative has all but reversed by the combined effects of the food and financial crisis. Two things need to happen. Obama should support the UN call for debt servicing moratorium using the US bankruptcy legislation as a guide. This is only fair and will signify that Obama is listening to the UN when it comes to economic matters. Secondly, there is a crying need for a structural solution. This should be in the form of an independent debt arbitration panel operating under the auspices of the UN, to mediate between debtors and creditors rather than the current system in which debtors are totally at the mercy of creditors. This is not only fair, but it is also necessary to ensure that a stabilized international system benefits rich and poor alike.
In relation to value added production, Obama is already one step in the right direction, by pushing for agricultural productivity up on the international agenda. First a few cautions. A focus on agricultural productivity should not become a cover for foreign private companies to grab lands or impose expensive, input intensive methods in the name of modernisation. The issue of land-grab is particularly worrying. A recent study by the FAO of 5 African countries, including Ghana showed that in the name of promoting foreign direct investment 2.5mn hectares of land of sizes exceeding 1000 hectares have recently been sold off to foreign investors in 5 countries, with single acquisitions as large as 450,000 hectares (Madagascar), 400,000 (Ghana) , most of it used for biofuel production. Total investment commitments for land acquisitions of over 1000 hectares have exceeded $1bn from 2004 to date. The myth that Africa is a continent of land abundance, with no claimants is dangerous for the future peace but also for social equity. Similarly, the enthusiasm to promote productive agriculture must not lead necessarily to a conclusion that old-fashioned green revolution is the answer, with the spectre of aggressive penetration of US agribusiness. With the threat of climate change, smarter conservation agricultural techniques are called for.
On the more positive side, Obama has the means in the form of AGOA and the Millennium Challenge fund to demonstrate his support for a focus on value added production. To do so however will require a radical review of both instruments. As they currently stand they achieve the opposite ends. The eligibility criteria discourage and undermine Africa’s capacity to produce by imposing US intellectual property rights protection regimes, imposing privatization, insisting that governments are not directly engaged in economic activities, by discouraging them from using industrial policies to move out of commodity dependence and by using technical assistance as a means to cajole governments to implement trade liberalisation policies which directly undermine the goal of diversifying their economies. The view that liberalisation at all cost is good for the economy has now been shown to be entirely false. This applies even more to African countries. If Obama does really mean to promote value added production in Africa he should indicate that the era of the extremes of economic ideology is over; that Africans are unlikely to ever break out of primary commodity production and joblessness without an active but balanced role of the state in investments, manufacturing and in enhancing their share of the value chain.
Such a strategy already exists in Africa. In 2004, the African Union, the African Ministers of Industry, and NEPAD adopted an African Productivity Capacity Initiative (ACPI), aimed precisely at a wise use of industrial policy and public/private investments to promote value added production. Such a strategy cannot succeed without targeted and time bound infant industry protection, including more pragmatic use of trade policy. Obama should indicate support for such approaches and align his strategy for agriculture with this African-driven initiative. Such a support, even with modest financial means, will be invaluable politically and in terms of the policy space. He should indicate to the IMF and the World Bank that the neoliberal development model they work with has been put out of date by the global poverty, financial and trading crisis.
Obama must continue to emphasise the personal responsibility of African leaders and African people. He should ask them to do more with what they have, mobilise more resources from within, stamp out corruption and live less lavishly. He should commend Prof Mills for the small size of his motorcade; for not moving into the ridiculously luxurious new presidential palace built with huge loans (as people hungered). He should remind African and all other parliamentarians that they do not have a right to a standard of living several times the average of their populations. He should discourage African politicians from being businessmen- a clear root to conflict of interest and corruption. They should make a choice between public service and personal profit seeking. He should remind them that the only way to measure their worth to their citizens is the extent to which citizens have jobs, have access to healthcare, education, water and personal protection – not the sophistication of their limousines and life styles.
Above all, he should remind himself and us all that the wind of change that began in Accra in 1957 sweeping across the African continent, suppressed for several decades, may well be on the rise again. Who better to understand this, than Barrack Hussein Obama.
Charles Abugre 08.07.09 |